Reuters: Major player weighs buying Life Technologies

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO), the world’s largest maker of laboratory equipment and scientific instruments, is considering making an offer for Carlsbad’s Life Technologies (Nasdaq: LIFE), three sources close to the talks have told the Reuters news agency.

The private equity firms KKR & Co., Blackstone Group, Bain Capital and TPG Capital are also weighing a bid for the company, Reuters reported. Ten days ago, the Bloomberg news agency named KKR and Blackstone as potential bidders.

Life Technologies, which makes genetics testing equipment, announced on Jan. 18 that it had hired Deutsche Bank Securities and Moelis & Co. to help its annual strategy review. Both companies have a track record for assisting in mergers and acquisitions.

The next day, Life Technologies' total stock value rose to $10.5 billion -- its highest point ever. A source told Bloomberg then that the company was expected to bring a sales price of $13 billion.At that time, William Quirk, an analyst with Piper Jaffray & Co., wrote that the statement implied the company had “potentially received an offer from an acquirer, is contemplating a LBO or is potentially in the process of shopping the company for a strategic buyer."

Quirk named Thermo Fisher as a potential buyer, as well as Roche Holding and General Electric (NYSE: GE).